Bill Gates would like to introduce you to the cutting edge in 1985 computer technology:

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There are hundreds of online websites claiming to have any number of tweaks you can apply to Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system to make it run faster. However, some of the more commonly repeated tweaks are just useless myths.

The Henrico County school system probably never expected violence to be the result of a $50 used laptop sale, but that’s exactly what they got when they organized a sale of the used equipment to county residents.

According to MSNBC, 5,500 people showed up today, hoping to score one of the 1,000 $50 laptops. Excitement over the sale lead to one woman apparently wet herself rather than lose her place in line, while another person use the folding chair he had brought with him to beat at the crowd pushing into the crowded center.

According to Rage3D.net ATI should have the new Catalyst 5.8 Radeon video card drivers on their driver download site on Wednesday, August 17th.

If you can’t wait an entire day, Driver Heaven has apparently scored a 24 hour exclusive on downloads, meaning that they’re available today. However, ATI notes that they will not give technical support to any drivers not downloaded through their own website, so you may want to wait until tomorrow.

For those currently testing Microsoft’s Windows Vista beta, ATI now has official beta drivers as well.

Users of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system are advised to check for Microsoft security updates and stop by the website of their favorite anti-virus program for patches to fight the latest security vulnerability.

CNN, which itself was hit hard by the Win32/Zotob.A Worm, is reporting that the worm is spreading quickly among Windows 2000 computers.

If you believe you’ve been hit by the virus, consider taking your system to your local Geek Squad.

If you’re looking to use two computers with a single monitor, USB mouse and USB keyboard, you might want to check out the Linkskey USB KVM switch ($28 @ Newegg.com).

This unit includes built-in cables for the USB, VGA, speakers and microphone ports, making the overall setup clean and simple. Since I have two sets of speakers for my computers, I did not make use of the audio support, which is often the weakest feature in most KVM switches. However, my 19″ Samsung monitor, Saitek Eclipse USB keyboard and Microsoft USB mouse all work flawlessly with the device.

The only drawback to the device comes from one of my two workstations running Ubuntu Linux, which seems to not want to allow the KVM to detect the double-tap of the scroll-lock key for quick switching, but placing the KVM in a convenient place so that I can easily use the button on the unit itself to switch from computer to computer has made this of little inconvenience.

Ars Technica has an article up about Creative’s current financial situation in which they point out that the company has $396 million of inventory for the quarter, a number that is up from $184 million last year.

According to one of the company’s own reports, their total sales for the quarter were US$305.4 million, which if I’m understanding correctly, means that they’ve got more than a full quarter’s worth of product sitting in inventory slowly depreciating in value.

I have to wonder, then, just how much of an impact the number of quality motherboards available now that include on-board sound is having on Creative’s bottom line. My only real evidence is anecdotal, but it seems like the more people I talk to, the more I hear are simply sticking with their “sounds good enough” on-board sound.

I also have to wonder if Creative’s ability to buy out potential competitors and shelve their technology is causing a downswing in add-on sound card interest. While this business tactic obviously makes them the biggest name in the field, it also means that there’s no real competition to drive news items or reviews to keep the community interested in new product.

In many ways, I believe the competition between AMD and Intel or Nvidia and ATI keep interest in all their new developments high among consumers.